Sunday, 27 November 2005

In marked contrast to last weekend, the sun never actually rose this morning – it just slunk about somewhere in the miserable overcast sky, not even seriously attempting to break through. The day dawned cold wet and sad, and sought as hard as it could to stay that way.

However, we were not having a bar of it.

The rain stopped briefly so we could saddle up at the Academy of Sport, and then resumed once we’d set off. The initial climb was cold and uncomfortable (mainly a walk in the rain), but once we got going on top we started to warm up and get slightly more comfortable. To the extent that you can get comfortable as the rain buckets down on you, and water and mud fill your eyes, glasses, contact lenses etc.

The famous Redhill grit bit in early, particularly given that the track was essentially one long creek – so there was a constant background grinding noise as brake pads wore down and chains had their lives halved. Again, Redhill proved to be the most expensive place in the world to ride!

Rees is clearly personally responsible for all the misery (he is yet to have a dry Redhill ride in the midst of the longest drought Sydney has ever seen), but he made up for it by turning up with a brand spanking new bike (and didn’t he look hot!). Brian complained of chain suck towards the end of the ride, but don’t be fooled: after a couple of early and stylish moments, he had a Registered Shocker of a ride – always nice to see the legends coming back to earth occasionally… Doug just got cold, and figured that destroying the camera in the rain was a less than good idea, so there ain’t no riding photos.

Indeed, we just “shut up and rode”.

Despite all the environmental issues, it was a very good and ultimately enjoyable short ride. What a great activity - where even such adverse conditions don’t ruin the fun!